


Library Departments - A Theory and Timeline

by TheGreatLibraryFangirl (Mazeem)



Series: Meta Archives [6]
Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Fandom Research, Fanon, Gen, Headcanon, Meta, Meta Essay, The Great Library Departments, This Is Niche, Timelines, fanon history, i make no apologies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23128450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazeem/pseuds/TheGreatLibraryFangirl
Summary: This is my deliciously self-indulgent overly complicated headcanons and summaries of the Library departments - what they are and how they ended up that way.Includes smatterings of real life history, quite a lot of book quotes, and an awful lot of headcanon. Might be useful for anyone who wants a sense of history to their Library world building but can't dig into it themselves.
Series: Meta Archives [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1647619
Kudos: 3





	Library Departments - A Theory and Timeline

There are seven Curators, as stated in Ink and Bone. These make up the Curia, the heads of the seven departments.

These are as follows:

  1. **Archivist Magister**
  2. **Lingua Magnus**
  3. **Historia/Litterae Magnus (more later on banding them together like that)**
  4. **Artifex Magnus**
  5. **Medica Magnus**
  6. **Obscurist Magnus**
  7. **High Garda Magnus**



But wait, you say, there isn’t an Archivist _department_ in the series? No, there’s not. I’ll get to that in both the Archivist and the Obscurist sections.

The tldr version, for anyone who just wants some seemingly random dates to slap into their fic/headcanons:

  * 3rd century BC (roughly 281 – 245 BC) – Archivist department began
  * 5th \- 8th century AD – Lingua and Artifex departments developed
  * 1st century AD - 8th century AD – High Garda and Medica departments formed 
  * 11th century AD (starting 1029) – Obscurists discovered and Obscurist department created
  * 3rd century AD - post 11th century AD - High Garda/Library Military Power Creep
  * 12th century onwards: Growth and changing scope of Artifex department begins
  * Post 12th century ("Renaissance") - Historia/Litterae department(s) developed.



* * *

**THE DETAILED VERSION**

  * **3 rd century BC (roughly 281 – 245 BC) – Archivist department begins**



**Real Life:**

The Serapeum was a Greek temple dedicated to the Greco-Egyptian fusion god Serapis. The one in Alexandria has been referred to as the daughter of the Library of Alexandria, and was founded in the reign of Ptolemy III. Wikipedia lists twelve of these temples in total throughout modern-day Italy, Egypt and Turkey.

Callimachus was a noted poet, who in approximately 245 BC, so either right at the end of Ptolemy II’s reign or at the start of Ptolemy III, wrote a catalogue of the contents of the Library of Alexandria by authors and by subject. It was called the _Pinakes._ Wikipedia says that he married, but whether he had any children or not is unknown.

He was not the ‘chief librarian’ of the Library of Alexandria. That role went instead to one of his students, Apollonius of Rome.

**TGL:**

In the very first ephemera of Ink and Bone, Callimachus is called the ‘Archivist’. He’s the first to suggest that the Library should make copies of “the most important works” in its collection, and create daughter Libraries; Serapeums. Ptolemy II charges him with creating “a listing of all works housed therein”.

This decision apparently took place in the third year of Ptolemy II’s reign, which going by RL dates was 281 BC (unless we’re talking from the death of his co-regent father, in which case we’re talking 279 BC).

There is also a reference to an extinct Library position called the “Editor”, who was to be consulted on the creation of exact copies. It’s not obvious to me whether Callimachus or the Editor were to actually do this themselves.

In TGL, Callimachus does have at least one child, a daughter.

**Headcanon:**

So, combining RL and TGL dates, it looks like Callimachus got told to start on these two mammoth tasks in 281/279, and finished the Library catalogue in 245 BC – five years before his RL death.

That’s more than _thirty years_.

But then again, he’d been given a _lot_ of work.

Apparently the Library held nearly 500,000 papyrus scrolls, which I have seen equated to something like 100,000 modern books. To fulfil his two tasks, he needed to ‘survey’ them all and create a list, decide on which items were “suitable for the use of the Serapeum … being mindful of the need to provide works that elevate and educate” and then copy them all.

On top of that, in RL he was a prolific poet. Maybe he was in TGL too.

In order to get all of that done, I am going to shamefully steal some of his credit and say that he didn’t do it all alone. He had _assistants_. Students?

Together, they catalogued and assessed and preserved and copied. The Archivist department. The original Library department, for the original Library purpose of curating the Great Archives.

Being ‘the Archivist’ at that point might not have meant being the one in charge. I headcanon that the Editor was the one in charge, as a TGL version of **[Zenodotus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenodotus).**

  * **5 th \- 8th century – Lingua and Artifex departments develop**



**Real Life:**

Alexandria officially came under Roman control in 80 BC, but had been under the influence of the Empire for much longer than that. Julius Caesar was besieged in the city in 47 BC, and after 31 BC the new Roman Emperor Octavius took the city as his personal property.

Why is this relevant? Because it’s time to talk about late Roman views on education and studies.

The _liberalia studia,_ the liberal pursuits, were already a very well-known framework by the dates shown above, but exactly which subjects were included wasn’t set down until the 5th century, where a man called Martianus Capella from a Roman African province (roughly encompassing modern-day Tunisia and bits of Algeria and Libyia composed an incredibly influential work called _De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii._ The seven liberal arts which he set out became accepted as the ‘official’ list. These were:

  1. **Grammar,**
  2. **dialectic,**
  3. **rhetoric,**
  4. **geometry,**
  5. **arithmetic,**
  6. **astronomy**
  7. **music (harmony).**



(With a disdainful nod towards architecture and medicine, which were only concerned with ‘earthly things’.)

From the 6th century, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music were grouped together as the _quadrivium_ , a pattern which was eventually followed to call the study of grammar, dialectic (also called ‘logic’) and rhetoric the _trivium_.

**TGL:**

All the department titles are in Latin, and although the official name for their currency, the _geneih_ , is Arabic, the common name is a ‘Roman’ because the coins carry the head of Julius Caesar. Khalila's specialist subject in Ink and Bone includes astronomy and mathematics (Jess says she talks about "dizzying levels of mathematics" in Ink and Bone).

There is nothing that I can find at all about the purview of Lingua in the series. In Ink and Bone, Artifex is described as "Mathematics, engineering, the practical arts." 

**Headcanon:**

There’s definitely Roman influence visible in the Library, so why not have it visible in how the Scholars divide?

They wouldn’t be called _trivium_ and _quadrivium_ because that was for initial education; these are adults pursuing further study. But it’s very interestingly clear divide:

Lingua: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric

Artifex: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music

(There will be much more about the Artifex department and the practical arts later on.)

  * **Somewhere between 1 st century AD and 8th century – High Garda and Medica departments formed **



**Real Life:**

As stated above, Alexandria fell under Roman control at the start of this period. There were riots and massacres, mainly connected to religious fights for dominance. In the 7th century, it was invaded by the Persians, the Byzantines and the Muslim Arabs.

 _Medica_ as a Latin noun means 'doctor. (Female doctor, to be precise.) When the word is used as an adjective, yes it can just mean medicinal/healing, etc. But it can also mean magic. 

**TGL:**

There’s only one vaguely relevant to an old attempt to invade the Library, the Mongols “a thousand years ago,” according to Khalila in Smoke and Iron, which is far too late for my purposes.

It's mentioned in the books that it is known for Medicas to be people with just-too-little Obscurist power to be confined to the Tower. Wolfe also says that only people with Obscurist powers found that alchemy worked for them. 

**Headcanon:**

It makes perfect sense that with the Library coming under more threat those in charge would want to protect themselves. Hence, the High Garda.

The name is interesting here. Garda is a Medieval Latin word which means, as you might perhaps expect, ‘guard’. I hypothesise that originally there was just the Garda, who guarded the Archives.

As the influence of the Library developed, was there a High and a Low Garda? With Low Garda perhaps protecting the daughter libraries abroad, or the streets of Alexandria. And then over time, perhaps as they evolved from guards into the armed force/police force we see in the series, the High Garda got more preferential treatment and their name eclipsed the ‘Low’ Garda.

Once you have a set of people who are expected to need to fight, it would doubtless be useful to have people to fix their injuries. Medica. I also headcanon 100% that before the development of the Obscurist department, the Medica ranks would have been full of 'alchemically gifted' Scholars, whose cures just worked ... better.

  * **11 th century – Obscurists discovered and Obscurist department created**



**Real Life:**

In 1029, a man called Mahmud of Ghazni conquered an ancient Iranian city called Rayy (Ray, Rey, or Rai, Old Persian Ragha, Latin Rhagae), bringing it briefly under the control of the Ghaznavid dynasty. He had some of the library collection from that city burned, and some taken back as plunder. This may have been connected to the persecution of minority religious groups such as Mutazilis and Shii groups.

A woman called Akkadevi lived from 1010-1064 AD in an area which is now part of India. She was a member of the ruling Chalukya dynasty and governor of an area called Kishukādu. According to her Wikipedia article, she was an impressive ruler; a strong general who also gave education grants. 

Joan of Arc happened. I can just say that, right? She's pretty easy to Google if you don't know her. 

**TGL:**

According to two of Wolfe's speeches in Ink and Bone, the Serapeum of Rayy was destroyed in 1029, with the loss of over 50,000 texts in "an orgy of looting and fire'. This taught the Library that "calculated politics and unthinking rage ... are the greatest threats knowledge can face" and they started to try and prevent it happening again. The 402nd Archivist Magister, Akkadevi, is created with the discovery of mirroring.

Elsewhere Wolfe goes into more detail to say that this disaster made alchemists, who had previously worked in secret, work together. They discovered mirroring, the alchemical process "by which any ... [text] ... may be written into a similarly treated Library blank," thus removing the risk to originals. However, they also discovered that alchemy only worked, not for people who found the right random combination of circumstances, but for people who had "a talent that could imbue formulae with real power." 

They discovered the Obscurists, as a group. 

The Iron Tower is built for them as a place of study, where they can live with their families. (Multiple ephemera massively contradict on when this was built.) By the 15th century, the Library use a disaster with Joan D'Arc to suggest imprisoning the Obscurists as dangerous, although it takes until the 18th century for that to be carried out. Roughly one hundred years later, according to a Paper and Fire ephemera from Keria, there was a riot, and in revenge the Library removed the Obscurists' untalented families from the Tower forever. 

**Headcanon:**

The rise of the Obscurist department causes the decline of the Archivist department. There's no need for Scholars to do the work of curating and cataloguing and copying when the Obscurists can write scripts to do it instead.

  * **3rd century - post 11th century? High Garda/Library Military Power Creep**



**Real Life:** Largely irrelevant, I think. 

**TGL:**

In terms of the military ambition of the Library, there's an ephemera from the reign of Aurelian, which dates it to the 3rd century AD. Here the Archivist at the time explicitly states the desire to wield "both pen and sword." There's also the Doctrine of Ownership - more on that in Headcanon.

**Headcanon:**

There are a couple of useful points regarding that power creep. The first hint of real ambition in that direction is found in the ephemera mentioned above, from Archivist Zoran. By the time of the Doctrine of Ownership, which is introduced an unknown amount of time after the Doctrine of Mirroring, I am assuming the Library had their army/police force ready to go, in order to enforce people illegally keeping originals.

This is the crisis point where the Library became the dominant world power, all in the name of knowledge ...

  * **12 th century: Development of Artifex department**



**Real Life:**

So, we left this in the 6th century, with the Roman _quadrivium_ of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music. These were four of the liberal arts. As well as these, there were also the "mechanical arts" or _artes_ _mechanicae._ Historically, these were viewed as lower, base activities. A 9th century source lists them as follows:

  1. **_vestiaria_ ([tailoring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailor), [weaving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving))**
  2. **_agricultura_ ([agriculture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture))**
  3. **_architectura_ ([architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture), [masonry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonry))**
  4. **_militia_ and _venatoria_ ([warfare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War) and [hunting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting), military education, "[martial arts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts)")**
  5. **_mercatura_ ([trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade))**
  6. **_coquinaria_ ([cooking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking))**
  7. **_metallaria_ ([blacksmithing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksmithing), [metallurgy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy))**



By the 12th century, the view of the mechanical arts as 'beneath" scholars is slowly starting to shift into simply seeing them as a different area of knowledge. You can read a little about this [here](http://www.avista.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Walton_MechArts.pdf), with a [primary source](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/robert-kilwardby/#ClaSciDeOrtSci). A 12th century philosopher Dominicus Gundissalinus, introduced to the Western world from the Arabic world the idea that the mechanical arts could be seen as applied geometry. 

**TGL:**

In Ink and Bone, Thomas wants a placement in 'engineering', which Jess then says falls under Artifex.

In Sword and Pen, the new Artifex and Thomas work to build weapons, as well as their previous work building printing presses. The Artifex position has a forge, or rather, I suppose, to be precise, there is a place called the Artifex's forge. So physically building and creating things is squarely an Artifex purview. 

**Headcanon:** So from now on, it becomes much more acceptable for the interested Artifex Scholar to apply their theoretical knowledge in practical forms, such as architecture, engineering, blacksmithing and metallurgy. Since the Library controls all knowledge, you can hopefully see how quickly the Artifex department would gain prominence in these fields, getting to the stage we see in the books where it is an assumed part of Artifex study. 

  * **Renaissance (post 12th century) - Historia/Litterae**



**Real Life:**

The Renaissance, roughly 14th to 16th century AD, has been described as a "[great pan-European flowering in art, architecture, literature, science, music, philosophy and politics](https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/key-features-of-renaissance-culture)." It was caused by a huge variety of factors, including the resurgence of classical texts and literature thanks to Arabic translations, and the fall of Constantinople. Latin and Greek were learnt to read texts in their original language, and new importance was given to history and literature, such as Homer, as opposed to previous focus on religion. A concept of humanism developed: " _[studia humanitatis](https://www.britannica.com/topic/studia-humanitatis)_ , a course of Classical studies that, in the early 15th century, consisted of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy."This was all spread by the printing press. 

**TGL:**

Historia is mentioned in the list of departments in Ink and Bone, and then Litterae at the end of the series, in Sword and Pen. There is no explanation of the change.

There's very little explanation of Historia, and almost none at all of Litterae. Dario says that he wants to be Historia Magnus, and his specialist subject in Ink and Bone is history. The Litterae Magnus has a "breathtaking instinct for language" and is expected to know how many Blanks the Library has in storage. (Several hundred thousand is the immediate answer.) There is a mention of "Literature" Scholars in Smoke and Iron, which includes a well-known author, and Wolfe refers to them as "the writers".

**Headcanons:**

I'm not that fussed about why there are two apparently interchangeable departments. You can see some fun theorising [here on tumblr](https://eli-wray.tumblr.com/post/188138820761/heeeeeey-awesome-catch-i-totally-missed-that), which originally inspired this ridiculous meta. Call it History/Literature, I don't mind. Though I do find it interesting that the Blanks are Litterae's responsibility - a bit of the shifting of what used to be Archivist's job?

But I do think that this department was the last to arise, as a result of a surge of interest and respect in history and literature. 

You'll notice I dated this to 'post 12-century', not matching RL Renaissance dates. Why? Because I think the Library verse situation is different. Whether the spread of Christianity happened in the same way is the topic for a whole new meta, but I certainly believe that there is no reason for classical texts to have been completely lost when the Library survived. 

However! Post 12th-century, the Obscurists have discovered mirroring. And that means the Codex, eventually. (Even the modern day of the series, Codices are seen as hugely important and valuable things.) When you combine mirroring with the doctrine of Ownership, there will, I theorise, have been a period where there was a sudden influx of texts made available anyone with a Codex. This also serves a similar role to the printing press in distribution. Though, of course, all intended to be firmly under Library control. 

(Final petty hilarious little headcanon, Wolfe referring to the Literature Scholars as 'the writers' has an echo in Litterae Vargas saying that Artifex tends to attract people who are "brilliant but quite raw in social skills.")

* * *

All right, that's me done. I hope somebody out here found this at least vaguely interesting!

**Author's Note:**

> If for some reason you want to see where this post grew from, or to browse my world building tag, you can find some relevant tumblr posts here:
> 
> https://thegreatlibraryfangirl.tumblr.com/post/190177138885/ive-just-had-a-thought-edit-i-had-several-and?is_related_post=1  
> https://thegreatlibraryfangirl.tumblr.com/post/188211553645/the-great-librarys-departments


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